The first CRYPTO was held in 1981. It was the first major conference on cryptology, and was all the more important because relations between government, industry and academia were rather tense. Encryption was considered a very sensitive subject and the coming together of delegates from different countries was unheard-of at the time. The initiative for the formation of the IACR came during CRYPTO '82, and CRYPTO '83 was the first IACR sponsored conference.